


The Garden of Eden

by nishizono



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-24
Updated: 2011-07-24
Packaged: 2017-10-21 18:05:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/228070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nishizono/pseuds/nishizono
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five more days in Utah. Five more days of a broken air conditioning and the unrelenting desert sun. Just five more days, and he won't see Eames again for months, maybe even years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Garden of Eden

It's hot in Utah.

The air is tingling with the kind of electricity that rides ahead of a summer storm, but it hasn't rained in months. There's dust everywhere, a fine red powder that coats everything in sight, gets inside your head and clogs your brain. It's too fucking hot to think.

Arthur is draped across one of the beds in his motel room, sprawled on his back with his arms flung wide. The air conditioning isn't doing much except stirring the musty air, and even with his shirt unbuttoned, Arthur is still uncomfortable. There's not an inch of skin that isn't damp with sweat, and if only he were alone, he'd already have stripped down to his underwear.

“Five days,” says Eames.

Arthur turns his head and opens his eyes. He watches Eames take a drag from his cigarette, then closes his eyes again and says, “Yeah. Five days.”

Five days until Cobb and Mal come to meet them. Five days until they can do their job and go the fuck home. Just five more days, and Arthur won't see Eames again for months, maybe even years.

His skin feels too tight. There's a muscle-deep itch in his legs that he's too lethargic to scratch.

“Do you need me to distract you?” asks Eames. He drops his cigarette into a half-empty beer bottle, then walks over to the bed and stands between Arthur's knees.

Arthur glares at him.

“You keep letting me do this,” says Eames. “Don't think that doesn't mean something.”

“It doesn't mean anything,” says Arthur, but he doesn't try to pull away when Eames kisses his stomach.

They spend the next two days fucking and mostly ignoring each other until Eames grabs Arthur's hand and says, “Come with me. I want to show you something.”

Arches National Park is empty because no one else is stupid enough to visit in the middle of July. The main road twists through jagged red cliffs, their edges shaped by millions of years of wind, rain, and the scorching desert sun. The rocks look brittle enough to be shattered by a flick of the fingers.

Arthur swallows. His throat is dry.

Eames guides the pick-up truck across the russet wasteland, through the canyon and across dry riverbeds, and past juniper trees that have managed to survive despite the brutal forces of nature that surround them. There's a sprinkling of clouds on the horizon, just thick enough to threaten rain.

“It'll be dark soon,” says Arthur, not because he's worried, but because Eames might be. He wonders when that started to matter.

Eames just nods and shifts the truck into low gear as they start the slow climb out of the canyon.

“Keep your eyes closed. We're almost there.”

Arthur hates this. He hates every drop of sweat that slides out of his hair and runs down his forehead, and he hates the heat of the sun. He hates hiking across an unfamiliar landscape with nothing but Eames to guide him. He hates that they're alone out there. He hates that he doesn't want to go back.

Arthur stumbles.

“Careful,” says Eames, his hand tight on Arthur's elbow. “It's just a little farther.”

 _That's what I'm afraid of_ , Arthur thinks.

Arthur doesn't have words to describe what he's seeing. For a minute, he's not sure he'll ever speak again.

“They call it the Garden of Eden,” says Eames. His voice is hushed, like he's afraid he'll break the moment by saying anything too loudly.

They're standing on a rocky precipice with the landscape below them flushed red from the setting sun. Off in the distance stands a cluster of sandstone towers reaching toward the sky, their edges softened by the very same elements that have left everything else ragged. The sky above them is so dark blue it's almost purple, and the clouds he'd spotted earlier are closing in on the mountains.

Arthur feels like the whole world has been laid at his feet.

There have been sunsets in his life. He's watched the domes of Santorini turn turquoise in the hazy golden light, and he's swum under the coral skies of Tahiti. He's seen a thousand sunsets in a hundred different places, but he's never shared one with Eames.

They sit together on the edge of the cliff, their legs dangling over the side with nothing between them and the sky. The rocks are still radiating warmth left over from the brutal afternoon sun, but the air around them is starting to cool. Arthur doesn't look at Eames, but he can feel Eames beside him, the heat of his body and the sound of his breathing, slow and steady as the desert breeze.

Arthur's stomach is in knots, but his hands have stopped shaking.

“Three more days,” says Eames.

Arthur imagines he can feel the vibrations of Eames's heartbeat through the limestone. “Three more days,” he says.

“I'll probably go to Prague,” says Eames. It's not a question, but it is.

Arthur stares at the sky and listens to the rumble of thunder in the distance. He wonders if the storm will smooth their edges, or if it will break them down and wash them away. The only thing he doesn't wonder is whether they should try to find shelter.

“I've never been to Prague,” says Arthur, and Eames kisses him just as the first drop of rain hits his cheek.

The End

  



End file.
